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Savannah students get head start on medical careers

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Nine students enrolled in the medical specialty programs at Beach High and Woodville Tompkins are spending their summer preparing for careers in medicine.
Each is working to earn college credit in biomedical science courses and participating in hands-on labs and clinical shadowing through the Medical College of Georgia/Augusta University Student Educational Enrichment Program.
“I plan to go to medical school and because of this experience I’ll be ahead of the game,” said Beach High student Marisa Baker.
The six-week program is for students with above-average math and science grades who are enrolled in the specialty programs at Beach and Woodville. It takes place each summer at Savannah State University. Students receive a stipend to help cover books and expenses. Their college course tuition is paid by the Medical College of Georgia.
The Medical College of Georgia has been offering SEEP in various forms since 1970 to interest more underrepresented, nontraditional and economically disadvantaged students in health care professions. The program was expanded to Savannah’s medical specialty programs in 2011.
“Since we started tracking program graduates 84 percent have gone on to medical and biomedical research programs,” said Linda James of the Medical College of Georgia. “Several members of our first cohort of Savannah students are in the application cycle for medical school next year.”
Beach and Woodville medical students had to meet above-average academic requirements for admission to their high school specialty programs and to participate in SEEP.
Beach High student Monique Bigham said the program delves deeper than her high school courses, but the professors break the information down so it can be easily understood.
“It’s more interesting,” she said.
Tuesday in their biological principles course, students extracted DNA from strawberries and identified parts of plant cells. Woodville student Joselyn Amadiz said the program will help her achieve her goal of become an anesthesiologist.
“I’m learning a lot about the cell structure and DNA, which is really important,” Amadiz said. “I didn’t understand it as much before. Coming here has helped me a lot.”
The full story can be found online at: http://savannahnow.com/education-news-news/2016-07-05/savannah-students-get-head-start-medical-careers